Hi,
This is a matter of opinion, I think, not objective reality.
The toc design I just pushed is traditional and I think superior, despite the
argument below.
If I had to muster an argument, it would be as follows:
* a toc should be visually distinct from the rest as an aid to the user
finding it when scrolling (not confusing it with other textual content)
* a good way to do that is the traditional way: a square layout with left
justified headings and right justified page numbers with leader dots
connecting them
* the idea that the 'eye cannot leap' from the headings to the numbers
doesn't feel true to me, and page numbers don't matter much anyway in pdfs
(what matters is clicking on the heading and being taken where you want to go
- whoosh)
* I found the old design visually unattractive on the page with its ragged
(non-justified) right wide page numbers. It just floated in empty space
amorphously.
My two cents.
Cheers,
Kyle
On 01/04/2011 08:20 PM, Kevin Godby wrote:
'allo.
On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 6:51 PM, Kyle Nitzsche
<kyle.nitzsche@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
With bzr revision 52, I changed the table of contents design (as a working
idea) so that it look like one.
That is, it has chapters on the left, then leader dots, then page number on
the right.
This involved using the tocloft pkg and removing some seemingly unused code
in ubuntu-developer-manual.cls.
The table of contents (TOC) was designed the way it was because it's
easier to use that way. You're not summing up a column of numbers;
you're trying to locate the page number where the chapter/section
begins. The reason you used leaders was because otherwise your eye
would find it difficult to track across the entire width of the page
to locate the proper page number. So the leaders are a poor
work-around.
Your design now leads to the reader to naturally group the pages
numbers together in a column and the section headings together in a
separate column. This is the opposite effect that you want in a table
of contents.
Robert Bringhurst says it better than I in his _The Elements of
Typographic Style_:
"Lists, such as contents pages and recipes, are opportunities to build
architectural structures in which the space between elements both
separates and binds. The two favorite ways of destroying such an
opportunity are setting great chasms of space that the eye cannot leap
without help from the hand, and setting unenlightening rows of dots
(dot leaders, they are called) that force the eye to walk the width of
the page like a prisoner being escorted back to its cell."
I much prefer the original layout. Though, if you have specific
arguments against them, I'm happy to discuss them and try to find a
good solution.
--Kevin
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